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Discover is a science magazine that publishes articles about science for a general audience. The monthly magazine was launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It was later sold to the Walt Disney Company in 1991, but in October 2005 was sold again to Bob Guccione Jr., founder of Spin and Gear magazines.
History Discover was originally launched into a burgeoning market for science magazines aimed at educated non-professionals, intended to be somewhat easier to read than Scientific American but more detailed and science-oriented than magazines like Popular Science. Shortly after Discover was launched, the AAAS launched a similar magazine, ''Science'' (not to be confused with their journal of the same name), and both Science News and Science Digest changed their formats to follow the new trend. During this period, Discover was a fairly in-depth science news magazine. Stories tended to be on "hard science" topics, and avoided fringe topics such as UFOs. Most issues contained an in-depth essay by a well-known scientist, notables such as Steven Jay Gould. Another common article was a biography, often linked with mentions of other scientists working in the field. One column, Skeptical Eye, attempted to uncover various scams and flim-flam in the popular science world, and was the medium for James Randi to release his Project Alpha results. It was the most-read section of the magazine when it was first launched, according to its editor. Discover was one of the first popular magazines to mention (albeit in a sidebar) what was then known as "Gay-Related Immune-Deficiency" or GRID, the disease that is today known as AIDS. The introduction of so many new magazines aimed at the same readers led to a rapid commoditization of advertising dollars, forcing most of the magazines to attempt another format change in order to find a subscriber base. Science was later purchased by Discover, on the proviso that the format would not change significantly. Science News returned to a pure-news format. Science Digest turned to fringe topics, and was for a short period was "into" spontaneous human combustion, before attempting to return to a pure news format again, and then going bankrupt. Omni maintained a blend of fiction and gonzo journalism that remained fairly popular until the early 1990s, when it appears the blend of web-based information and magazines such as ''Wired'' led to its closure in 1995. Discover was left largely alone in its market space by the mid-1980s, but nevertheless decided to appeal to a wider audience and dramatically "dumbed down" their content around 1984/85. Skeptical Eye and other hard science columns disappeared, and articles tended to become more controversial, covering topics like "How the Universe Will End" and other highly speculative topics that were largely content-free and error prone. This change in format appears to have been a great success, and the new format has remained largely unchanged for the last two decades. Trivia Discover magazine frequently runs one fake article in its April edition as an April Fool's joke. The articles are often so outrageous that they are hard to miss, yet the next month's issue frequently has angry letters from readers who feel misled or quote bad science. Examples have included the discovery of the "Bigon" * * (a subatomic particle the size of a bowling ball) and of the "Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer" (an Antarctic predator resembling a Naked Mole Rat that burrows through ice). See fictitious entry. See also | ||||||||
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